WCMS soccer took to the field Monday afternoon in a soccer play-day where the varsity soccer team competed against a hodge-podge team of coaches, parents and junior varsity players -- some surprisingly soccer ready – in a day of fun in the sun.
The varsity began this game much like any other, by winning. John Jackson found the net within the first 30 seconds of the contest for the varsity squad, 1-0, and Kade Simpson found it in the next 30 seconds, 2-0.
Take away those two early scores, as one of members of the parents/coaches brigade was heard to comment after the game, and you had a close contest as it ended in a 5-2 varsity win.
The game was played during the day in front of members of the WCMS student body.
“It was a fun game and great for the boys to show their skill to the school. This group of eighth-graders combined with the awesome group of ninth-graders I had last year are really something special,” said WCMS soccer coach Matt Jackson. “I injured my hamstring in warmups, so I wasn’t able to play well.  Regardless, the eighth-graders showed their quality. They were able to capitalize on some defensive breakdowns early and score two goals.  After we got things together, we held them for a while, but the reality was always there, if they wanted to score, they could.  On the other hand, if we wanted to score, we couldn’t.”
“It was still a fun day,” Jackson said. “There is a lot of work ahead to get the sixth- and seventh-graders ready to defend the title next year. I am always amazed at how much they grow and mature in a year, and by next year we will be looking at a whole new team. We also have a lot of the same boys playing for our travel teams at Middle TN Soccer Club. We actually get much better playing travel than we do playing school soccer because the competition is much better. Right now I am looking forward to a few weeks off and then it will time for tryouts and fall will be here before we know it.”
Making up the coaches/parents/JV squad, aka the blue team, were WCMS head coach Matt Jackson, coach Myra “Scrappy” Jackson – the team was stacked with action Jacksons – parent James Clark and coach Alan Brownyard, who was a monster in goal.
Also included in one position or another were Cooper Bailey, Aiden Cano, Isaac Cantrell, Owen Clark, Juan Mirafuentes, Gabe Morin, Yehoshua Pic Ruiz, Harper Riley, Abram Stinson, Jorge Vasquez, Keldrick Cox, Joan Garcia, Jonathan Greene, Baylor Hitchcock, Uriah King, Ethan Melton, Coby Olafson, Jordan Ramirez, Tyler Simpson, Sawyer Thompson and Edgar Villegas.
It took great courage, or extreme foolhardiness, for the blue team to occupy the pitch against a team that just won its CTC championship game for the fifth year in a row, but take the field they did and, surprisingly, held their own or at least didn’t get shut out.
The varsity team was up by a score of 4-0 at the break, courtesy of scores by Dominique Betancourt and another by Jackson, and claimed they didn’t let up on their parents/coaches/JV counterparts in the second half.
Jordan Ramirez showed his stuff for the blue team by scoring after halftime to make it 4-1 and a penalty kick by Scrappy Jackson went in on second effort after it bounced back into the field of play, making it a two-goal game, 4-2.
Jackson, the varsity one, would help put the blue team in a deficit they couldn’t recover from later in the second half with a picture-perfect cross pass to Carter Smith he didn’t waste time putting in goal for the final score resulting in the 5-2 win.